Quinnipiac hockey rallies, advances in NCAAs

Updated 10:59 am, Sunday, March 31, 2013

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Down by two in the biggest game in Quinnipiac men's hockey history, there was only one way out Saturday, the way Kevin Bui has contributed all year for the Bobcats.

"I try to go out there every shift and work my butt off. That's what this team's built on, working, competing," Bui said. "We almost had a fight (Friday in practice) because we were competing with each other."

Bui worked to get to the front of the net and clean up a rebound, the winning goal in the Bobcats' 4-3 victory over Canisius in the opener of the NCAA East Regional at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

"Coach kept the bench calm," said Bui, who has five points in five games after scoring six in the first 24. "He said, `Do the simple things, and we're going to get goals.'"

After the Bobcats trailed 3-1, Matthew Peca, Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Bui scored within six and a half minutes in the third period to earn the program's first win in an NCAA Division I tournament.

Top-ranked Quinnipiac (28-7-5), whose only other tournament game was 11 years ago, will face ECAC rival Union (22-12-5) in Sunday's regional final at 6:30 p.m.

The winner goes to the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, April 11/13. Third-seeded and 13th-ranked Union knocked out defending champion Boston College 5-1.

The Bobcats beat Union, their ECAC rival, twice this year, 4-0 in Schenectady, N.Y., and 3-2 in Hamden. But Union has won seven in a row, including the ECAC tournament.

"What you saw (Saturday) is not the best defensive hockey team in the country," Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said of his team.

"There are certainly a lot of positives," he added. "Being down 3-1 and coming from behind in an NCAA game is pretty impressive. It doesn't happen a lot."

Pecknold said there wasn't panic at the bench -- "Not to say we were not worried, but there wasn't panic," he said -- when Griffins' leading scorer Kyle Gibbons beat a man out of the right corner and scored on his own rebound 3:43 into the third.

Peca made his own nice move out of the corner -- on his backhand out of the left corner, he pivoted to his forehand and roofed a shot past Tony Capobianco's blocker -- to make it 3-2 with 11:58 left.

"When we made it 3-2, I knew we were going to win the hockey game," Pecknold said. "I think the bench knew it, too."

Samuels-Thomas tied it on a right-circle wrister on the power play. Bui, driving down the slot to the net, converted the rebound of Bryce Van Brabant's shot.

Capobianco kept them in it early, though Eric Hartzell, Quinnipiac's Hobey Baker Award finalist, made some tough saves of his own in the first. The lone goal was Connor Jones', off an assist from twin brother Kellen.

"We were trying to stay positive," Jones said.

"All four lines had a lot of chances. We knew we needed to get more pucks to the net."

Goals 44 seconds apart in the second handed Canisius a lead. Pecknold said the team had talked about it, that they'd fall behind or somehow face adversity at some point.